Route 4
Ferrara
The city of Ercole I d’Este
Caterina
Vi a
Siena
Viale della Certo sa
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’Est
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Via G u ar
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Corso
Biagio
Rosset
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Corso
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Via P
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Palazzo dei Diamanti
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viati
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Corso
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Castello Estense
Chiesa del Gesù
Corso Ercole I d’Este
Palazzo dei Diamanti
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Borg
Lo
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Cosm
Porta
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Vi a P a
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Ariosto
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Arianu
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Vi a B o r s o
Santa
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Palazzo Massari
Piazza Ariostea
Certosa
Casa di Ludovico Ariosto
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Until the late 15th century, the city walls protecting the north side stood along
what are now Viale Cavour and Corso Giovecca. Beyond them lay the countryside dotted with several dwellings and buildings.
Ercole I, driven by reasons of finance, politics, prestige and military considerations decided to enlarge the capital of
his dukedom by widening the scope of
the city walls. The new protective ring
was to encompass an immense area to
the north that would include as much
land as possible as new residential areas very quickly filled up. The project
was entrusted to Biagio Rossetti and
was remarkably successful in terms
of modernising the city. The building
works went on for many years and cost
the treasury huge sums of money.
Castello Estense: north ravelin
This itinerary begins at the north ravelin (or entrance) to the castle
(A). The view from here clearly demonstrates the grandeur of the
project known as the Herculean Addition. The two main right and left
geometrical axes that intersect at this point give some idea of the size of
the project when compared with the size of the medieval city. (It was at
this time that Corso Giovecca was first built with the knocking down
of the old walls. Viale Cavour was built during works in the 1800’s that
eliminated the canal from a tributary of the Po that fed the castle moat).
Facing straight ahead is Corso Ercole I d’Este that ends at the Porta
degli Angeli visible in the distance, this too gives an indication of the
scale of the new sections of
the city.
Sitting at the entrance of
Corso Ercole I d’Este is the
18th century Pawnshop (on
the left), recently restored
to its original vibrant
colours, and the Chamber of
Commerce.
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The old Pawnshop
Located at the north entrance to the castle are reminders of
the fact Ferrara was governed by the church in Rome from
1598 after the Este family ceded control.
The Ravelin features an elegant covered balcony from
which commanding position Papal Legates (nearly always
cardinals) could watch public ceremonies. Above the
balcony is a marble plaque inscribed with the symbols of the
temporal power of the Popes - A pavilion and Saint Peter’s
keys.
The Pawnshop building is also a Papal symbol and like
other buildings of its type was built with the aim of granting
small loans to the populace and keeping them out of the
hands of usurers. To underline this role of social awareness,
a series of plaques surrounds the building bearing images of
Christ with arms outstretched in a gesture of compassion.
To begin the tour, take Via Borgo dei
Leoni - this street takes its name from
a small group of houses that leaned up
against the walls in front of the former
Porta dei Leoni. The 16th century
Palazzo Naselli Crispi is to found at
number 28 and while not very large,
has some wonderful design features.
The courtyard can be visited on
public holidays and its classical lines
are a joy to the eye. On leaving you
will note a splendid Madonna fresco
inside the main arcade. The painting
is the work of Girolamo da Carpi who
also designed the building.
Palazzo Naselli Crispi
Unlike nowadays, the Palazzo Naselli Crispi could easily be
seen from far away. There were no other buildings in front
of it but the Parco del Padiglione, an immense garden that
came right up to the castle moat. This meant that the court
secretary Girolamo Naselli, only had to stroll across the
garden to get to work!
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Design of the Palazzo di Giulio d’Este is attributed to Rossetti and it is
a somewhat strange building. The façade, for example, is wonderfully
elegant but completely asymmetric, the doorway is not centred, the windows (sometimes doubled and sometimes not) are positioned at irregular intervals. There is also a first floor balcony that due to a lowered
entrance, creates an optical illusion that makes the balcony seem to be
suspended between the ground and first floors. There is no explanation
as to this unusual design but there can be no doubt that the building was
certainly one of the most original of the Renaissance period.
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d’Es
I
Erco
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A little further along is the junction
called the Quadrivio degli Angeli.
This is the focal point of Rossetti’s
D
new city design. It is at this junction
that some of the most desirable
Quadrivio degli Angeli
streets in the city meet. There is
Corso Ercole I d’Este with its rows of
elegant houses that belonged to members of the court and there is the other
Renaissance period main axis that is made up by the present day Corso Porta
Mare, Corso Biagio Rossetti and Corso Porta Po. It should be remembered
that Viale Cavour didn’t exist beforehand and that Corso Giovecca was
closed by the city walls and had only a practical function in that it was used
by trade traffic going northwards. As witness to the symbolic importance of
this junction is the elegance of the palazzi that face on to it. To start with,
there is the Palazzo dei Diamanti (D) by Rossetti. The building takes its
name from the way in which the 8,000 pyramid (or diamond) shaped stones
are set together to form the façade. The most abundantly decorated part is not
the entrance, as would be usual, but the corner facing the junction that was
finely carved by Gabriele Frisoni and embellished with a charming balcony.
o
Cross the church courtyard and turn
right into Corso Ercole I d’Este
(C) that exhibits a long straight
line of historic mansions. The
Church of Gesù
Palazzo Varano at number 12 was
the property of the Princes of Camerino. Well worth noting is the multicoloured marble doorway that is overlooked by a balcony that somewhat
strangely allows access not to the building but to the garden.
The junction with Via Armari is overshadowed by the immense yellow and
pink walls of the neo-renaissance period palazzo belonging to the Gulinelli
counts and the Canonici Mattei family. It now houses a private school.
A plaque reminds us that in the summer of 1900, a meeting between the
Gulinelli family and Ettore
Bugatti led to the founding
of a factory to produce the
legendary Bugatti cars.
Almost directly facing this, at
number16, is the Palazzo di
Giulio d’Este that belonged,
it would seem, to the hapless
brother of Duke Alfonso I and
later to Prince Pio da Carpi. It
Corso Ercole I d’Este
is now home to the Prefecture.
Continuing down Ercole I d’Este, at
number 26 you will see the Palazzo
Camerini (now the Questura offices)
with its neo-classical façade and
triangular bas-relief pediment.
Cors
A little further along stands the
Church of Gesù (B) that was built
around 1570 by Alberto Schiatti
for the recently arrived Jesuits. The
interior houses wonderful paintings
and sculptures as well as the tomb of
Barbara of Austria.
te
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Corso Ercole I d’Este
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The palazzo at present plays an important role as a museum and houses
different exhibitions and collections. Among these is the National
Picture Gallery that keeps some of the oldest works of art, the Modern
and Contemporary Art Gallery, dedicated to temporary exhibitions,
the Museum of Risorgimento and Resistance and the Museum
Michelangelo Antonioni, dedicated to the illustrated works of this
noted Ferrarese film director.
Facing the Palazzo dei
Diamanti is the Palazzo Turchi-Di Bagno
that is now part of a
university faculty. The
building has lost much
of its original splendour
but still features a magnificent entrance and in
particular a monumental marble cornerstone.
The Palazzo ProsperiSacrati also boasts a
corner balcony and can
be seen at the corner
of the next section of
the street. This palazzo
also displays a stately
marmoreal entrance
with beautiful bronze
inlays.
Palazzo Prosperi-Sacrati
Nowadays it is interesting to notice how often the place name
“degli Angeli” was used in this part of the city (Porta degli Angeli,
Quadrivio degli Angeli, ... and don’t forget that Corso Ercole I
d’Este used to be called “Via degli Angeli”). The explanation isn’t
too hard to guess: in the times long since gone, in the last section of
the street, there stood the great church of Santa Maria degli Angeli
where many members of the ruling family were buried. The land was
deconsecrated in the Napoleonic era and quickly deteriorated to the
point that it completely disappeared in little over a hundred years.
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Starting into the Corso Porta Mare section you
will pass between two areas of green. On the
right are the University Botanical Gardens
and Parco Massari is across the road. This
is the biggest of the parks inside the walled
area of the city. The two huge Lebanese cedars
at the entrance to the park have now become
symbols. Immediately after the park stands a
Filippo De Pisis,
group of buildings that are known collectively
“The gladiolus struck
as the Palazzo Massari (E). It was initially a
by lightning”
beautiful Rococo building called the Palazzina
dei Cavalieri di Malta that then became a palazzo. The two buildings unite
to form a single construction with the entrance at number 9. The complex
houses the Museum Giovanni Boldini of the
19th Century and the Museum of Modern
and Contemporary Art Filippo De Pisis.
In the rear in the former stables stands the
Pavilion of Contemporary Art that is used
for temporary exhibitions. Scattered around
the courtyards between the various buildings
are statues by contemporary artists. After the
museum, you will soon see the immense open
space of Piazza Ariostea (F) that is towered
over by a statue of Ludovico Ariosto perched
Giovanni Boldini,
“Lady in rose”
at the top of an historiated column.
The story behind the monument in the centre of this piazza is long and
complicated: the column was originally intended to be used along with
a twin to support a statue of Ercole I d’Este on horseback, but the statue
never actually got sculpted. Hundreds of years passed and finally the Papal
authorities decided to use the surviving column as a pedestal for a statue
of Pope Alessandro VII. The French revolution was in the air, the statue of
Pope Alessandro was removed and replaced by the “Genius of Freedom”.
Shortly after, this too gave way to a statue of Napoleon dressed as a Roman
emperor. The Restoration followed and Napoleon’s statue went the same
way as its predecessors (although the head and a hand can still be seen
in Casa Romei). In the end, someone had the clever idea of putting up a
statue to the writer of the classic Orlando Furioso. This was a stroke of
genius as the poet’s fame was so great that no subsequent government,
regardless of its political leanings has even considered touching it.
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Piazza Ariostea
Take Viale della Certosa that lies facing the church beyond the gate
and this will take you back to Corso Ercole I d’Este. The walls are
now near the Porta degli Angeli and are clearly visible at the end of the
road on the right. Now turning left, you will soon reach a junction that
features two historically very noteworthy buildings that now belong to
the university. At number 37 is the Palazzo Trotti Mosti that houses
the Faculty of Law and facing it at number 44, the Palazzo Guarini
Giordani used by the Faculty of Economics.
The piazza was designed by Rossetti as a trade and finance centre for the
new part of the city and it was for this reason that it was strategically located
along the main axes. He took care however to make sure that one of these
main roads passed along the side of the piazza so that the market did not
obstruct traffic. There are two arcaded buildings of significance: the Palazzo
Bevilacqua runs along one of the short sides (its original lines that have
disappeared from the façade can be seen to some extent in the courtyard) and
the Palazzo Rondinelli, along the longer side of the piazza. The Church of
Stimmate that looks on to Via Palestro, houses a picture of Guercino.
From Piazza Ariostea, take the quiet street called Via delle Erbe and
this will lead you to a beautiful leafy area that you can cross on the
bicycle path or walkway that goes as far as the walls.
Via Borso that runs
alongside Palazzo Massari is
a short street lined by gardens
whose trees provide constant
shade and it will lead you to
the Charterhouse complex
(G). This was founded as
a monastery on the orders
of Duke Borso in the 15th
The Charterhouse
century. In the early 19th
century it was transformed into a cemetery designed by Francesco
Canonici, to whom the two magnificent curved arcades that encircle
one side of the grassy clearing at the entrance.
To the right of the Church of San Cristoforo is a courtyard that serves
the Gran Claustro around which the monks’ cells were positioned.
Under a shrine at the end of the arcade lies the tomb of Borso d’Este.
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Church of San Cristoforo
The great scholar, Guarino da Verona, lived in Palazzo Guarini and was
tutor to Leonello d’Este and the first teacher of Humanism in Ferrara. His
descendants also lived here and were elevated to the rank of Counts. Two of
these relatives who went on to distinguish themselves were Battista, the poet
and author of “Pastor Fido” and Anna, a musician and singer at the court of
Alfonso II. The patriot, Count Tancredi, lived during the 1800’s in the palazzo
belonging to the noble Trotti Mosti family. The Count subscribed to the Roman
Republic and created a corps of volunteers called the “Bersaglieri del Po” to
defend liberty. A bust of the Count and much other memorabilia concerning the
volunteer corps is housed at the Museo del Risorgimento e della Resistenza.
You can return to the centre from
here by following Corso Ercole I
d’Este, if on the other hand you
take Via Arianuova, you can go
on to Via Ariosto and visit the
House of Ludovico Ariosto (H)
at number 67.
House of Ludovico Ariosto
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